Sefton Council refused to revisit its decision to leave our town without a central library for almost three years at a crunch summit on Wednesday night.

Labour and Conservative members serving on a panel responsible for scrutinising last month’s contentious call to rule out a facility voted against referring it back to the council’s cabinet for further debate.

That means stock will now be moved to outlying branch libraries during the £15m transformation of the Atkinson Library.

Liberal Democrats had wanted to house a facility within Southport Indoor Market, deferring its £3.2m rebuild – a plan widely welcomed by stallholders and library users.

Mrs Alexander, who played Hilda Ogden on the soap, appeared at the Overview and Scrutiny meeting to speak in support of the proposal.

She said: “I am speaking as a regular user of the town centre library. I know you have received a petition of 5,000 signatures of residents who have serious concerns.

“Now, I believe I am right to say that the market hall belongs to us and I believe that’s where the temporary library should be.

“It would be a big benefit to the market traders and I am sure they would welcome this.”

Conservative committee member David Pearson, however, reiterated how costs of making such a move – around £470,000 – at a time when the council was making redundancies vetoed that option.

He explained: “I don’t doubt that anyone disagrees with the fact that we do need a presence in Southport of a temporary library. The real argument comes over costs.

“I understand that the chief executive of the council told the cabinet that there’s no money for this.”

After a two-and-a-quarter hour debate, Labour member Cllr Les Byrom’s resolution that the committee stand by the original cabinet decision was passed by six votes to two.

He called on party groups wanting a temporary library to incorporate the costs into their own budget proposals in April.

He said: “I want to see the library and arts centre refurbished, I want to see a temporary library during the close-down period, I want to see the market refurbished as planned – but we need to find a way through the current financial problems of the council.

“I believe we can, but not by playing raw political games.”

Last night, Cllr Richard Hands said the Liberal Democrats would continue to fight for the ‘library within a market’ and accused Labour and Tories of “ignoring the wishes of thousands”.

He said: “I am bitterly disappointed. A town the size of Southport should not be without a library for the next three years, it is as simple as that.

“Where will all the community groups go that use it? It is not just about books – what about the language courses, open access learning courses or children’s Rhymetime?

“What about the jobless who rely on IT to find jobs or students who use computers to research?

“There are 270,000 visitors to the library each year – they cannot be accommodated in Ainsdale, Birkdale or Churchtown.”

A selection of books would be moved to branch libraries with the remainder of stock taken to Crosby and Maghull libraries when the Atkinson Library closes at Easter.